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Illness or misadventure

The Opportunity Class Placement Test will be held on Wednesday 31 July 2019. The test is held only on this day and only in official test centres in NSW. There is no catch up test.

What is illness or misadventure?

Illness: Your child was sick or injured or had a diagnosed medical condition affecting your child's performance or causing your child to miss the test.

Misadventure: An incident or circumstances affecting your child's performance either in their school assessments or in the test, or causing your child to miss the test.

If a student misses the Opportunity Class Placement Test or cannot perform his or her best because of these circumstances parents should submit an illness/misadventure request following the instructions below.

Grounds for illness/misadventure requests

If your child is affected, get documentary evidence as soon as possible – generally on the day of the test. Submit this evidence with a request for illness/misadventure. Requests must be received within two weeks of the test date.

A medical certificate for the test date is required if a student is sick or injured just prior to the test. The 'independent evidence of illness' section of the claim form must also be completed by your doctor. Long-term illnesses that affect the school assessments and the test cannot be compensated for.

Documentary evidence is required if a student is involved in an accident or other incident that affects their performance either in the Opportunity Class Placement Test or school assessments. Submit the evidence with the claim form.

Interstate or overseas applicants may make a claim for misadventure if they are unable to sit the Opportunity Class Placement Test but attended a NSW primary school in Year 4 and the school can provide school assessment scores.

Generally, it is better for a student to take the test than to miss it – even if performance is affected, and to submit an illness/misadventure request using the form after the test.

However, students must not attend the test centre if there is a risk to their health or the health of others, such as in the case of contagious disease, or against medical advice.

Making an illness/misadventure request

In the case of illness or injury, take the Independent evidence of illness page to the child's doctor. You should also get a medical certificate.

In the case of misadventure, collect and scan any supporting evidence

If you believe something has occurred to prevent your child from gaining higher school assessment scores, you should provide documentary evidence if possible, and submit the completed form to your current school principal for comment on page 4.

Scan the completed Illness/misadventure form, medical certificate or other evidence.

Email the form and evidence to the High Performing Students Team within two weeks of the test. For 2020 entry, requests must be received by Wednesday 14 August 2019.

Assessment of illness/misadventure requests

A decision to uphold or decline the request will be made following a review of the application and submitted evidence by the selection committee.

A student may be considered on moderated school assessment scores, if available, when an illness/misadventure request is upheld. If this method is unavailable parents may wish to provide Full Scale IQ test results of a WISC V IQ or Stanford Binet V test performed by a qualified psychologist. Government primary school principals may be asked to allow the school counsellor to conduct an IQ test for students at their school. If this option is unavailable parents will need to arrange for their child to be tested at their own expense.

If neither of these options are possible, the selection committee may consider other evidence of academic merit.

Even where a request is well supported by evidence and is accepted by selection committees, an adjustment is not always possible and the placement outcome might not change. Adjustments to scores are not released.

Parents are advised the result of an illness/misadventure request in mid-October when the placement outcome of their opportunity class application is received.

Selective high schools and opportunity classes

NSW Department of Education

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This information is current as at 26/05/2019 12:36am, AEST. For the most up-to-date information, go to https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7/information-for-applicants/choosing-a-selective-school.